Trump appointee apologizes and resigns after bigoted comments emerge

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Appointed by President Trump to serve as the chief of external affairs for the federal agency that runs AmericCorps and other volunteer service programs, Carl Higbie publicly apologized on Twitter after resigning from office due to his bigoted comments on radio shows being recently exposed. According to CNN’s Kfile unit, Higbie openly made racist, sexist, islamophobic, and anti-LGBT comments on the radio before joining Trump’s presidential campaign as a surrogate.

“Effective immediately, Carl Higbie has resigned as Chief of External Affairs at CNCS (Corporation for National and Community Service),” Samantha Jo Warfield, a spokesperson for CNCS, said in a statement on Thursday.

On Friday morning, Higbie tweeted, “I’m sorry. I’m not sorry that my words were published, I am sorry that I said them in 2013. Those words do not reflect who I am or what I stand for, I regret saying them. Last night I informed the WH that I was resigning so as not to distract from POTUS’ many success. #noexcuses”

Higbie resigned shortly after CNN published a series of bigoted comments that he had made on the radio between 2013 and 2015. Speaking on “Sound of Freedom” in December 2013, Higbie stated, “We’re promoting birth control to a black woman because of the incredibly high rate of children born out of wedlock that are under-cared for or not cared for at all. The taxpayers are tired of supporting government checks going to these people who think that breeding is a form of employment. I’m sorry if black people are the majority of the targeted audience. They are, statistically they are.”

Speaking on “Sound of Freedom” in June 2013, Higbie said, “Go back to your Muslim shithole and go crap in your hands and bang little boys on Thursday nights. I just don’t like Muslim people. People always rip me a new one for that. Carl, you’re racist, you can’t, you’re sexist. I’m like Jesus Christ. I just don’t like Muslim people because their ideology sucks.”

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On Warrior Talk Radio in August 2014, Higbie stated, “I was called an Islamophobe and I was like, ‘no, no, no, no, no, I’m not afraid of them. I don’t like them. Big difference.’ And they were like, ‘well, you’re racist.’ I was like, fine if that’s the definition of it, then I guess I am.”

While falsely stating that military members suffering with PTSD have “weak minds,” Higbie publicly accused 75 percent of PTSD patients of lying in order to gain federal money. He also threatened to gun down undocumented immigrants illegally crossing the Mexican border into the U.S. and fantasized on the radio about smacking Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

In May 2013 on “Sound of Freedom,” Higbie admitted, “I talk about this in my book, you know, I was, I was molested by a gay guy when I was a young kid and that kind of set the precedence for me. So I, I just, I really don’t care for them. You know what, you want to be gay? Fine. Do it over in your own corner. If I was president of the United States, I wouldn’t make laws saying you can’t be gay because I believe that’s your right. So go over there, be gay, don’t march down in the middle of the street and your drag outfit being fairies and things like that. Don’t throw it in my face. Don’t make me like it because I don’t – do it on your own. Do it over there and let it be your thing.”

In addition to questioning the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, Higbie became a spokesman for Great America PAC, which advocates for Donald Trump, before serving as a surrogate on the Trump transition team. He served as the Chief of External Affairs for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) from August 2017 to January 2018.

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Andrew Emett is a staff writer for NationofChange. Andrew is a Los Angeles-based reporter exposing political and corporate corruption. His interests include national security, corporate abuse, and holding government officials accountable. Andrew’s work has appeared on Raw Story, Alternet, and many other sites. You can follow him on Twitter @AndrewEmett and on Facebook at Andrew Emett.

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